


In the Mirror

by sxetia



Category: Persona 3
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Minato lives, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Trauma, i had this idea yknow, idk - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:21:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25805047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sxetia/pseuds/sxetia
Summary: He's just a creature of habit, is all.
Relationships: Arisato Minato & Iori Junpei, Arisato Minato & Mochizuki Ryoji, Implied Arisato Minato/Aigis
Comments: 2
Kudos: 43





	In the Mirror

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Cut It All Off](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25033954) by [MachineryField](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MachineryField/pseuds/MachineryField). 



> very heavily inspired by hanahimus's fic "cut it all off."

"Don'cha wanna cut your hair, Minato...?"

Lively as Minato had become (relative to the face of clay he had always worn in the years prior), he still relied on the cold comfort of stiff expressions and a constant blank out of habitual necessity. He was silent as they walked – Jaw locked slightly, brow furrowed and cheeks sucked in. Junpei spoke again before he had the time to reply, offering Minato a gracious few seconds more to process the question and formulate a response.

"I mean, doesn't it get all annoying being all in your face and stuff? It looks _good_ long and all, but imagine how good at Kendo you'd be if you had **two** eyes to use! Hahahahah...!" His cackling, accompanied by his Cheshire-cat grin and the crazy-kitten look in his eye, helped to pull Minato out of his fugue. The boy afforded a careful, nuanced smile, and shrugged bony shoulders.

"I'm not certain," he said slowly. "I suppose it's simply that I'm used to it. I've effectively worn my hair like this for all of my life. Not having it long and down over my face feels... strange." A pale, slender finger worked its way through long cobalt locks, twirling one around and lifting it off his shoulder. Long hair suited him, so he thought – it piqued Aigis' curiosity constantly and led to her fussing over it any time that they had a spare moment, it received compliments almost daily from those who bothered to notice, and it was familiar enough to not evoke _that memory_ in spite of being a drastic change from what he had kept for nearly eighteen years of life.

Sometimes, change was a good thing.

* * *

Sometime over summer break in the months following the rooftop reunion, Minato had stepped out of the shower in his dorm and meandered over to the mirror. The reflective glass had perspired in the presence of the steaming heat that Minato always preferred to bathe in, so he reached out to graze swollen fingertips against it and wipe it away. Fussy over his appearance and hygiene as he was, the mirror was often the first place that Minato gravitated towards when beginning his morning routine. His reflection was obscured by wet strands that fell messily over his face, a problem which he promptly solved by pulling his hair back and slicking it back over his head.

He studied the mirror for a second or two, and saw the face of Ryoji Mochizuki.

Steel-gray eyes aside, it all came together beautifully: the prominent M-shaped crease of his hairline and shallow curve of his forehead, pudgy cheeks that formed together in the dull point of his understated chin. The little bump that made up his nose, his heavy eyebrows, the little mole beneath one eye that his fringe always seemed to obscure...

And Aigis' reflection, too, peeking at Minato and watching him from behind the doorframe, hands creased over the corner to lock an eye upon him. Perhaps playful, perhaps protective, but _she_ saw it too. The blank look on her face and complete stillness in her body said it all.

Chills down his spine and, somewhere in the once-vacant recesses in the back of his heart, a laugh that wasn't a laugh.

Staggered, he took a step back and whipped his head forward, sending his hair right back over his face and obscuring the reality of his visage.

Minato wouldn't wear his hair up anymore. Or cut it, or adjust it, or make the slightest attempt to unobfuscate his face. As far as he was concerned, the way he wore his hair _was_ his face.

Everything else belonged to Ryoji.


End file.
